Living in Los Angeles Area

Hi there,

I'm interested in finding family related information about living in
the Los Angeles/Burbank area in California. You know, good schools,
parks, where can you live for under $350,000 that isn't a two hour
drive to the Burbank area. Looking for a 4-bedroom type home,
elementary schools, etc...

Web sites, or opinions would be great.

oj

OJ wrote:
Hi there,

I'm interested in finding family related information about living in
the Los Angeles/Burbank area in California. You know, good schools,
parks, where can you live for under $350,000 that isn't a two hour
drive to the Burbank area. Looking for a 4-bedroom type home,
elementary schools, etc...

Web sites, or opinions would be great.

oj

realtor.com is a good place to get an idea of house prices if you know
the zip codes you're looking at.

Clisby

In article , OJ says...

Hi there,

I'm interested in finding family related information about living in
the Los Angeles/Burbank area in California. You know, good schools,
parks, where can you live for under $350,000 that isn't a two hour
drive to the Burbank area. Looking for a 4-bedroom type home,
elementary schools, etc...

Web sites, or opinions would be great.

oj

Interested in a used white Ford Bronco? ;-)

(OJ) writes:

I'm interested in finding family related information about living in
the Los Angeles/Burbank area in California. You know, good schools,
parks, where can you live for under $350,000 that isn't a two hour
drive to the Burbank area. Looking for a 4-bedroom type home,
elementary schools, etc...

I rent in Pasadena (30 mins or so from Burbank), so I'm in more or less
the same boat as you. Have you looked at prices out here? $350,000
for a four bedroom isn't likely to happen in today's market. There's
a lot of development going on in Santa Clarita, which is about 30 mins
from Burbank. Some of the people I know who have bought houses
recently live there. The LA Times website has a pretty good home
searching tool. (Hmmm... Having looked around, there *are* 4
bedrooms listed for less than $350,000. I suspect most of them have
some sort of catch.)

Personally I'm hoping prices will fall due to higher interest rates or
the "housing bubble" bursting or a change to Prop. 13.

Jon
--
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for
yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . But as for me and my
household, we will serve the LORD.
-- Joshua 24:15 (NIV)

"OJ" wrote in message
om...
Hi there,

I'm interested in finding family related information about living in
the Los Angeles/Burbank area in California. You know, good schools,
parks, where can you live for under $350,000 that isn't a two hour
drive to the Burbank area. Looking for a 4-bedroom type home,
elementary schools, etc...

Are you talkin $350K a year? Or total for a house?
If the former there are nice houses in Burbank for
less than 2 million, and living in Burbank puts you
in the Burbank Unified School district. Watch out
for LA Unified. I believe it's the biggest school
district in the country and does have some good
magnet schools, but the chance you can get into
a good neighborhood school is pretty much nil,
and there are all sorts of games to get into the
magnets, not to mention they may require quite
a bit of driving.

Calabasas schools are pretty good, if you live
in Bell Canyon or there abouts. You can
look up school districts and schools in California
using www.greatschools.net.

The thing about LA and Burbank is there are
quite a few things that are 30 minutes on a
good commute day, but on a bad commute
day the only thing within 30 minutes are things
reachable by side streets. And there are more
bad commute days than good.

Good luck.

On 26 Nov 2003 07:35:46 -0800, (OJ) wrote:

Hi there,

I'm interested in finding family related information about living in
the Los Angeles/Burbank area in California. You know, good schools,
parks, where can you live for under $350,000 that isn't a two hour
drive to the Burbank area. Looking for a 4-bedroom type home,
elementary schools, etc...

Good schools, 4 bedrooms, near Burbank for $350,000? I think you're
going to have a hard time finding that. We went through a similar
search a year ago, and I don't think you'd be happy to hear what we
ended up paying for our house.

- Seth Jackson

Songwriting & Music Business Info: http://www.sethjackson.net

Seth Jackson wrote in message . ..
On 26 Nov 2003 07:35:46 -0800, (OJ) wrote:

Hi there,

I'm interested in finding family related information about living in
the Los Angeles/Burbank area in California. You know, good schools,
parks, where can you live for under $350,000 that isn't a two hour
drive to the Burbank area. Looking for a 4-bedroom type home,
elementary schools, etc...

Good schools, 4 bedrooms, near Burbank for $350,000? I think you're
going to have a hard time finding that. We went through a similar
search a year ago, and I don't think you'd be happy to hear what we
ended up paying for our house.

- Seth Jackson

Songwriting & Music Business Info: http://www.sethjackson.net

Hi,

Right, well, that's sort of what I need to get an idea for. Reality
out there. Sounds like you paid more than you were expecting?

oj

On 1 Dec 2003 07:11:25 -0800, (OJ) wrote:

Seth Jackson wrote in message . ..
On 26 Nov 2003 07:35:46 -0800, (OJ) wrote:

Hi there,

I'm interested in finding family related information about living in
the Los Angeles/Burbank area in California. You know, good schools,
parks, where can you live for under $350,000 that isn't a two hour
drive to the Burbank area. Looking for a 4-bedroom type home,
elementary schools, etc...

Good schools, 4 bedrooms, near Burbank for $350,000? I think you're
going to have a hard time finding that. We went through a similar
search a year ago, and I don't think you'd be happy to hear what we
ended up paying for our house.

- Seth Jackson

Songwriting & Music Business Info: http://www.sethjackson.net

Hi,

Right, well, that's sort of what I need to get an idea for. Reality
out there. Sounds like you paid more than you were expecting?


Median home prices in Southern California are close to the $400,000
level, I believe, and Burbank is a desirable community, so prices
there are likely to be even higher than average. You'd have to talk to
a Realtor familiar with that market to get a good idea what the
current price range is for what you're looking for - I'm sure you can
find one online if you go to the home pages of national realty
companies and search for Burbank/Glendale.

Most first-time home buyers are having to resort to the lower-priced
communities farther away from Los Angeles - the Inland Empire,
Lancaster/Palmdale, etc. The difficulty there will be an arduous
commute if you are going to work in Burbank, perhaps up to 2-3 hours
with traffic.

Your alternative might be to "settle" for a small home or a condo in
the Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena area and then trade up after a few years
when your property appreciates and you've got some equity. The
two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot cottage next door to me sold last year
for $250,000 and it's on a postage-stamp-sized lot on a busy street!
You could also rent for a while (be prepared to pay $1700+/month for a
house) until you assess the market and find a way to buy property
locally.

If you're looking for activities for families in the area, check out
my E-newsletter for parents - The Orange Cat. Subscriptions are free
at: www.theorangecat.org

Karen

--
The Orange Cat: Calendar, advice & tips for busy families in the San Gabriel Valley
www.theorangecat.org

On 1 Dec 2003 07:11:25 -0800, (OJ) wrote:

Good schools, 4 bedrooms, near Burbank for $350,000? I think you're
going to have a hard time finding that. We went through a similar
search a year ago, and I don't think you'd be happy to hear what we
ended up paying for our house.

- Seth Jackson

Songwriting & Music Business Info: http://www.sethjackson.net

Right, well, that's sort of what I need to get an idea for. Reality
out there. Sounds like you paid more than you were expecting?

Well, good schools was our most important criterion, so we went for
the location with the best school district. At first, we didn't think
we could afford the area, but with the help of a mortgage broker and a
large down payment, we managed to swing it.

The amount you pay will depend on your definition of "good schools".
There are locations with decent schools that are more reasonable than
our neighborhood. Still, nothing that met our definition of "good
schools" was available for $350,000 anywhere near Burbank for a
4-bedroom. And prices have gone up substantially in the one year
since we bought our place.

- Seth Jackson

Songwriting & Music Business Info: http://www.sethjackson.net